One we called the inactives,
who seldom participated in a civil rights demonstration, helped
register voters, joined a voluntary association for meeting some social
need or went to political meetings. Members of the other group were
connected with such efforts.

Our most striking
discovery was that among all groups, inactive liberals had the highest
incidence of insomnia and stomach ulcers, the activists the lowest. *The
inactives worried, but they did not act.

As
Mr. Brook says, ''Action takes us out of ourselves''; it thrusts us
into the ''daily fact of other people's lives.'' To be a healthy
liberal, better to be an active one!

Many thanks, Sir: The above letter is from Donald W. Shriver, New York. The writer is president emeritus of Union Theological Seminary.

While the import-quality drug is widely popular among youngsters/students from privileged backgrounds.

Those in Swat, Mardan, Charsadda and Nowshera are shrewd enough to use teenaged drug dealers to peddle.

''CRUSTAL
MATH is generally smoked, inhaled or injected with a needle and is one
of the strongest stimulants creating hyperactivity and ecstasy,''
explains DWF's Dr. Javed.

''It
lowers appetite and the feeling of being hyperactive remains from six
to eight hours, and even can be prepped up to 20 hours.''

He
adds that several toxic chemicals are used in its preparation,
including acetone, lithium, toluene, hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide
and sulphuric acid and ephedrine is the main ingredient.

''*The dangerous side of this injectible drug is that it is closely linked with HIV/AIDS and hepatitus,'' says the doctor. ''It destroys the entire family fabric and the community at large.

No
girl/student or women has been registered as our facility till now but
it cannot be ruled out that women too have become Ice users.*''

The DWF rehab process is of a three-stage one:

.- detoxification for 15 days.

.- 90 days of rehabilitation and finally-

.- follow up checks.

Two years ago, the DWF in in collaboration with the provincial government managed to construct a 450-bed rehabilitation centre on Warsak road in Peshawar.

But
the project has run into some obstacles. According to a memorandum of
understanding singed back then, the KP government was to grant some 150
million rupees for rehabilitating 40,000 drug addicts.

''Out of this grant, 90 million rupees have already been spent and around 6,000 patients have been treated,'' says Dr. ParveenAzam Khan.

''But
if the rest of the money is not granted soon [and treatment gets
interrupted], rehabilitated patients could easily relapse,'' she
cautions and warns.

''Since Ice has become the
first-choice drug among youngsters, it creates several psychotic
problems,'' argues Shah Aurangzeb, a psychotherapist at DWF:

''Drug
addiction is not curable, it is only manageable. The actual number of
ice addicts may be higher than the number of registered patients.''

Meanwhile, Muhammad Anwar,
director general of the KP Excise and Taxation Department, claims that a
special committee has been constituted by the provincial cabinet.

This
committee will take into confidence all stakeholders to evolve a
comprehensive review of the proposed changes in the Anti-Drugs Act,
1979.

He said his department would need around 700, specially trained police force to contain drug trafficking including that of Ice.

''Our
force has already been working on abuse of drugs in the province. We
have launched operations to trace our drug-peddlers in the city. the
proposed draft will be presented to the provincial assembly for debate
and passage.

An effective anti-drug law is a just matter of two weeks,'' assures Anwar.